SEAGA TOOLBOX

The following set of tools is a condensed version of the tools contained in the full-size SEAGA guide, Rural Households and Resources: a Guide for Extension Workers. This section provides some key SEAGA questions to help extension workers as they look at households and their resources in the identification and analysis of issues with household members and communities. It is assumed that most users will have had some exposure to participatory learning tools. For those who have had little experience using such tools, it is recommended to review the full-size guide and practice some of the tools in advance. The tools can help highlight key issues as illustrated in the table below. Please note that these are only meant as suggestions - there are other tools that may also be useful depending upon the context and the scope of work. The SEAGA Field Handbook also has an extensive collection of participatory tools.

The information gathered using these tools can provide a better understanding of extension clients, their household resources, and the management of these resources as well as the needs and priorities of different households and household members. It can also be used to identify how rural people can be better involved in extension activities and to ensure participation by men and women and other socioeconomic groups. Please see other SEAGA handbooks and guides for further tools or key questions for specific technical areas such as livestock and irrigation. You can obtain copies of these from FAO’s Gender and Population Division.

Before using the tools with a community, it is important to remember the following:

· Be ready to introduce and explain an exercise that you would like to use with the community.

· Decide how an exercise should be facilitated and by whom and who should take notes. Avoid repetition of questions if several of the tools are used.

· Pay particular attention to households with chronically ill or otherwise vulnerable members. Avoid stigmatising any group.

· Be clear about group formation for the different exercises (just who works with whom in the group can influence the information that comes out).

· Discuss and share the results of group work in plenary, so that everyone knows what each group discussed, so avoiding conflict and suspicion.

· Allow at least 1 - 2 hours for each of the exercises.

Tool 1 - Village resource map

Relevance for extension and household resource management: This tool facilitates learning about resources in a community and about women and mens’ perceptions and values attached to those resources. It is also useful in developing community ideas for the future.

Use: Different maps can be made to compare changes over time. Discussions can focus on main differences and causes for change, e.g. soil degradation, land distribution, inheritance and ownership, changes in access to and control over resources. Maps can also be used to show conflicts over resource use.

It is possible to focus on specific resources or relate the resources to a particular topic during the mapping exercise so that you avoid overloading the map with information (e.g. natural resources such as fodder crops, forests, land, water, fish ponds, etc.) that are the most important for household food security; physical resources (e.g. health clinics, schools, roads, bus stop) that are important for time use. Social resources (e.g. number of people of different age and gender in each household) can be drawn onto this or a separate map or be written up in notes.

Examples of questions to ask after the map is completed:

• What types of resources are plentiful? Which ones are in shortage? Which resources are used? By whom?

• Who makes decisions about the allocation of resources to, and within, households and what are the criteria used for such allocation?

• Does the village have common property? If so, who decides on its distribution?

• What are the different rights to access resources for men and women? Male-headed households? Female-headed households? Youth/orphan-headed?

• Are any of the resources especially important for households with chronically ill members, orphan- or grandparents-headed households.

Tool 2 - Resource matrix

Relevance for extension and household resource management: Understanding who uses and controls the use of different resources is essential for planning extension services. Addressing constraints and building on opportunities can help strengthen rural people’s livelihoods and help identify who is likely to lose or gain from a particular intervention.

Use: The resource matrix helps us learn about the use and control of resources (e.g. natural, human, socio-cultural) - within households and among different socioeconomic groups (e.g. age, ethnicity).

Examples of questions to ask while facilitating:

• Which resources do women and men (both young and the old) use? How does this differ among socio-economic groups?

• Who decides about the use of each of these resources? Who has control over the resources (the right to sell or give them away)?

• What are the differences/similarities between men and women when it comes to type of resources they use, control, and have ownership of?

• What are the implications of resource access and control for women’s labour? Men’s labour?

• How does the death of a male (or female) adult change the access, control and ownership rights of the remaining spouse? What happens if both parents die?

• How can extension services support rural men and women to strengthen their livelihoods? Think of disadvantaged groups, HIV/AIDS and other sickness-affected households.

Example of resource access and control from Uganda 2003

Tool 3 - Economic ranking

Relevance for extension and household resource management: Economic ranking can help identify disadvantaged groups and better understand inequalities in a community. Health ranking (Tool 4) is an adaptation of this tool with a health approach.

Use: The tool provides learning about how economic situations and inequalities are perceived by community members, and can help extension workers and facilitators to identify poor and disadvantaged households. Be aware that the information generated is sensitive. Many people will not appreciate being classified as poor or rich, and they may not want to disclose such sensitive information.

Crop production, household food security and livestock ownership are used as indicators of wealth/poverty in the example below. Other issues that may indicate economic status are e.g. number of meals a day, school attendance of girls and boys and sources of household income.

Examples of questions to ask while facilitating:

• How do local communities define the concepts of “rich” and “poor” (or better off, worse-off)? Are there different perceptions among different groups (i.e. women and men? Different socio-economic groups?)

• What factors characterise the most disadvantaged households and/or household members?

• Are there households that are particularly vulnerable in terms of food security, livelihood, and overall well-being? (E.g. youth/orphan-headed households)?

Tool 4 - Health ranking

Relevance for extension and household resource management: Health ranking classifies households into health categories and aims at obtaining an overview of: i.) households suffering from bad health (disadvantaged groups); ii.) local definitions of health, and; iii.) how wide-spread this problem is for the community.

Use: Health ranking is an adaptation of tool 3 Economic Ranking. The criteria categories and questions are adjusted to address health issues. Let the participants define the health categories and definitions. Be aware that the information generated is sensitive, and avoid to stigmatise people with poor health, for instance people living with HIV/AIDS.

Examples of questions to ask during facilitation

• How do men and women in the community define sickness and wellness? What are the main categories of health status for people in the community (e.g. weakest, good, best)?

• Is there a group/s that displays the weakest health in the community (e.g. young, orphans, old, men, women, poor, etc)?

• From what illnesses do different households suffer? Does that fit into the different categories or is it present in all categories? Which sicknesses create most serious problems for the households?

• Which households are affected by chronic illness, in what ways and why (by household head, sex, age and socio-economic characteristics)?

• How do the households with weakest health cope? Do the households with stronger health help the ones with weaker health? How?

• How can the extension services assist the households in different categories to improve their livelihoods and cope with weak health?

Tool 5 - Activity matrix

Relevance to extension and household resource management: There are many ways for extension workers to learn about how work is divided among household members; this can be helpful for planning extension activities (e.g. time of day/season for different household members to take training, meet, etc.). These include: daily activity clocks, seasonal calendars, and activity or division-of-labour matrices.

Use: The activity matrix is useful for telling extension workers more about the labour within households and provides a good overview of who does what in a community or household, and can help extension workers to target their services.

Example:

Example of questions to ask while facilitating:

• What activities do women and men carry out separately? Together? Hint: Think of productive, reproductive (i.e. caring for sick, children, cooking, washing, etc), and community roles (group membership, maintenance of common property).

• How much time do women and men devote to productive activities? Reproductive activities? Community management responsibilities?

• How does the activity matrix compare among different socio-economic groups? What about households taking care of sick members or orphans?

• Which activities and resources contribute most to meeting the basic needs of the household? Who is involved in these activities?

• Which households have the most diversified livelihoods? Which are the most vulnerable, depending on only one or two activities or resources?

Tool 6 - Sources and use of money

Relevance for extension and household resource management: The tool can help to identify the main sources of income and expenditure for households and individual household members.

Use: This tool and the two examples below are adapted from IFAD (2002) and can be used in many different situations. If chronic illness (e.g. HIV/AIDS) is a big problem, it might be useful to have a group represent households with chronically ill members, or have them join existing groups in the community (be careful of creating stigma when forming groups). The template can be adapted to different situations, and to reflect the views of more than two groups.

Example: Ranking main items of expenditure

Main items of expenditure (according to Women’s Group in Zambia)

First item listed indicates highest priority. If more than one item is listed on a line it indicates that those items are ranked equally.

Main items of expenditure (according to Men’s Group in Zambia)

Examples of questions to ask while facilitating:

• What are the main sources of income for women and men? What are the main areas of expenditure?

• On which activities/priorities do women spend their cash income most and why? On which activities/priorities do men spend their cash income most and why?

• What about households with chronically ill members?

Tool 7 - Stakeholder analysis

Relevance for extension and household resource management:

Stakeholder analysis is useful for clarifying interests, decision-making roles and potential collaboration or conflicts between different socio-economic groups and service providers.

The importance of various institutions to their community: perceptions among men and women in a village of Santiago Island, Cape Verde, December 2003.

Use: A matrix (table) showing the various stakeholders involved at different levels (field, institutional, macro level) can be quite revealing to a community in terms of seeing who is involved or has an interest in a particular intervention or activity. Alternately, a Venn diagram (example on the right) can be used. It is best if groups brainstorm a list of potential stakeholders and then discuss what sort of interest, or stake, they think they have and their relation to other stakeholders.

Examples of questions to ask while facilitating

• Which organisations and groups work with the community? Are they organised according to economic, social, environmental, other issues? What is the relative importance of the organisations?

• Which groups assist households to overcome key constraints (e.g. related to land, livestock, sickness, nutrition, domestic violence, lack of income)? What services do they provide (information, training, projects, credit, and other kinds of assistance)?

• What groups are exclusively for women? For men? Youth? Are certain groups excluded from some of the organisations (e.g. men, women, the landless, certain ethnic groups)? If so, which ones and why? What are the implications of nonparticipation?

• Are there any groups that provide advice on HIV/AIDS prevention? Or on living with HIV/AIDS? Or mitigation, e.g. are there support groups or programmes for individuals or households affected by HIV/AIDS? Who has/does not have access to such services? How can the extension services link up with these groups?

• What are the linkages between local groups and outside institutions?

Tool 8 - Pair-wise ranking

Relevance for extension and household resource management: Pair-wise ranking highlights how the priority problems of different community and household members differ and where they overlap.

Use: This can show differences and similarities between women and men, across socioeconomic groups, or in areas where such illnesses as HIV/AIDS are prevalent - the particular constraints faced by households with chronically ill members, those taking care of orphans, or that have lost labour.

Example

Examples of questions to ask while facilitating

• What are the different problems identified by women and men? Which problems result from the gender division of labour or from inequitable access to resources? Which problems do both women and men share?

• What are the problems identified by different socio-economic groups? Which problems result from poverty or discrimination? Which problems do all groups share?

• Which problems relate to structural issues and the development context, such as policies, legislation, land rights, payment for services, chronic diseases?

• Which problems relate to the division of labour or constraints in the access to and control over resources such as land, water, credit, extension services?

• Are the problems related to one another?

• Was there consensus or not about the ranking of problems in order of importance?

Tool 9 - Problem analysis chart

Relevance for extension and household resource management: The tool can be helpful for analysing the priority problems of different groups and identifying areas to be addressed by the community and extension services.

Use: Once the priority problems of all the different groups in a community are identified, the next step is to bring everyone together for further analysis. This chart facilitates the presentation and discussion of problems and opportunities with the community as a whole and also service providers where relevant. The list should be short enough to allow focus on the key issues. The list of problems can be shortened by bringing similar problems together, excluding problems for which there are no solutions, and where a problem has been identified several times, listing it only once.

Example

Examples of questions to ask while facilitating:

• Which groups prioritise the same problems? Which priority problems are related?

• Did any of the non-community members suggest any additional causes to the problems? What are they?

• What are the current coping strategies? For men? For women? For those with disabilities? For children? For the old? For households with chronically ill members? For households affected by HIV/AIDS? For other groups?

• What suggestions do community members have to solve the problems? Men? Women? The poor? What opportunities to solve the problems were suggested by non-community members/service providers?

• Which of the solutions can be implemented locally? Which solutions can realistically be solved by extension services?

• Which solutions require other types of external assistance? Who can provide such assistance and what needs to be done to receive this?

Tool 10 - Community action plan

Relevance for extension and household resource management: This tool can help communities formulate concrete and realistic plans for implementing development activities and identify needs for extension services (and other services).

Use: The action plan builds on the problem analysis chart and discussions, and should focus on the development activities most likely to succeed.

Example

Examples of questions to ask while facilitating

• Which plans include activities that will directly benefit women, men or both?

• Which action plans include development activities that will directly benefit the most disadvantaged (e.g. the landless)? Or most or all of the community?

• Which benefits/costs will the proposed activities imply for households with chronically ill members or households affected by HIV/AIDS?

• Are the timelines, cost estimates and responsibilities well described and clarified in the matrix? What needs to be added or clarified?

• What are the next steps necessary for rural extension workers to take in order to facilitate implementation?